The Societal Analytics Lab invites all the Lab members affiliated to the Faculty of Social Sciences at Vrije University Amsterdam to apply for funding for buying or annotating data. The Lab will allocate up to 15,000EUR in grants that require up to 5000EUR. This could be many small grants or three grants of 5000EUR.
To be eligible to apply for this grant
The main applicant needs to be a researcher affiliated with the Faculty of Social Sciences at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and who is already a member of the Societal Analytics Lab. You can become a member here: https://societal-analytics.nl/contact/.
Applicants can only apply for one grant at the time.
Proposals can only be submitted once, if this is done more than once then we will consider only the latest version.
Application procedure and important deadlines
Applicants need to fill out the submission template. Applicants need to promise that the resulting data and/or labeled data will be archived as FAIR and as open as possible, and that its documentation will follow the Datasheets for datasets.
Once the form is filled out, applicants must send the form as an attachment to the Societal Analytics Lab analytics-lab.fsw@vu.nl with the subject “Data Grant Application”. The emails must be sent by the main applicant, i.e. the researcher affiliated with the Faculty of Social Sciences at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and who is already a member of the Societal Analytics Lab.
The call for applications opens the moment this call is published and it closes on December 31st, 2025, 24:59 hrs (CET). So, submit your application before December 31st, 2025, 24:59 hrs (CET).
Evaluation procedure and final results
The proposals will be examined by the two directors of the Societal Analytics Lab and two independent members of VU (TBA): one member of the library and a data savvy member from a different faculty.
The main points to evaluate are:
- How well the project aligns with the Societal Analytics Lab objectives.
- How well the project applies computational methods in social science research.
- Impact and broader utility of the expected output
- Clarity of the proposal and research plan.
- Feasibility of the plan and timetable.
The Societal Analytics Lab will announce the selected projects on the February 2025 Newsletter, i.e. at the latest the second week of February 2025.
Final outputs
At the end of the project, applicants need to submit a final report on how the grant was used. The report should also include links to: where the data or labeled data was archived or stored, and any possible working papers or peer-reviewed publications that resulted from the project (remember to acknowledge the Societal Analytics Laboratory as a funder). The report should be published before October 31st, 2026.
Submission template and other important info
The submission template can be downloaded here, applicants must send as an attachment to the Societal Analytics Lab analytics-lab.fsw@vu.nl with the subject “Data Grant Application”.
The email must be sent by the main applicant, i.e. the researcher affiliated with the Faculty of Social Sciences at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and who is already a member of the Societal Analytics Lab.
Format: max. 2 A4 pages, font : Arial 11 pt., line distance 1. Proposals deviating from the requested format may not be considered.
